An advertisement for Harry Houdini's appearance at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco in 1907.

An advertisement for Harry Houdini's appearance at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco in 1907.

Photo: San Francisco Chronicle

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The San Francisco Chronicle on March 20, 1923, the day after Harry Houdini did a straitjacket escape from the Hearst Building on Third and Market.

The San Francisco Chronicle on March 20, 1923, the day after Harry Houdini did a straitjacket escape from the Hearst Building on Third and Market.

Photo: San Francisco Chronicle

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Harry Houdini hangs suspended upside-down over a street in a straijtacket, one of his most famous escape stunts. A crowd has gathered beneath him. (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

Harry Houdini hangs suspended upside-down over a street in a straijtacket, one of his most famous escape stunts. A crowd has gathered beneath him. (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

Photo: Library Of Congress/Corbis/VCG Via Getty Images

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Harry Houdini hangs upside down from a crane after freeing himself from a straitjacket.

Harry Houdini hangs upside down from a crane after freeing himself from a straitjacket.

Illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini, New York City, 7th July 1912. That same day he performed his famous stunt in which he was submerged in the East River in a crate. He escaped in just under a minute. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)

Illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini, New York City, 7th July 1912. That same day he performed his famous stunt in which he was submerged in the East River in a crate. He escaped in just under a minute.

Illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini performs his famous stunt whereby he was submerged in the East River in a crate, New York City, 7th July 1912. He escaped in just under a minute. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)

Illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini performs his famous stunt whereby he was submerged in the East River in a crate, New York City, 7th July 1912. He escaped in just under a minute. (Photo by FPG/Getty

Spectators watch as escape artist Harry Houdini frees himself from a straightjacket while he hangs from a hook above a subway.

Spectators watch as escape artist Harry Houdini frees himself from a straightjacket while he hangs from a hook above a subway.

Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

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Portrait of famous escape artist Harry Houdini on diving board with ball and chain.

Portrait of famous escape artist Harry Houdini on diving board with ball and chain.

Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

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In a publicity stunt, magician and escape artist Harry Houdini (1874 - 1926) chains himself to a locomotive wheel for an escape attempt, ca.1910. (Photo by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

In a publicity stunt, magician and escape artist Harry Houdini (1874 - 1926) chains himself to a locomotive wheel for an escape attempt, ca.1910. (Photo by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

Photo: Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images

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Hungarian-born American magician, escape artist, and psychic debunker Harry Houdini (1874 - 1926) shows his handcuffs as he stands in a wooden box on a boat and prepares to be submerged, a predicament from which he will escape to the delight of onlookers, East River, New York, July 7, 1912. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)

Hungarian-born American magician, escape artist, and psychic debunker Harry Houdini (1874 - 1926) shows his handcuffs as he stands in a wooden box on a boat and prepares to be submerged, a predicament from

A crowd watches Hungarian-born American magician, escape artist, and psychic debunker Harry Houdini (1874 - 1926) as he wears a straitjacket and hangs from a crane during one of his beloved escape acts, Broadway and 46th Street, Manhattan, New York, 1910s. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)

A crowd watches Hungarian-born American magician, escape artist, and psychic debunker Harry Houdini (1874 - 1926) as he wears a straitjacket and hangs from a crane during one of his beloved escape acts,

Harry Houdini was ready to hang up his handcuffs. Then, San Francisco helped save his career.

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Harry Houdini was failing.

The 24-year-old magician had been struggling to launch his career for years. He did card tricks. He swallowed needles. He even took a circus job as the "Wild Man of Borneo" to make ends meet. He’d been testing some escape acts, but nothing seemed to take off. With a wife to support, Houdini was contemplating quitting show business altogether.

Down on his luck but not quite ready to pack it in, Houdini took his new handcuff escape to a Minnesota beer garden one spring day in 1899. In the crowd was Martin Beck, the booking agent for San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre.

Beck was just beginning his career as one of the most influential men in vaudeville. The Slovakian immigrant worked with theater owners all over the western United States to book acts, creating what became known as the Orpheum Circuit. Acts who signed onto the circuit had guaranteed employment for months as they went from performance to performance at Orpheum-operated theaters.

Houdini’s handcuff trick impressed Beck. He sent Houdini a telegram inviting him to join his Orpheum Circuit as an escape artist. Houdini accepted.

Sensing his luck was about to turn, Houdini held onto the telegram. At the bottom he’d later write: “This wire changed my whole Life's journey."

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Houdini is hoisted into the air upside down and lifted high above the crowd as he wrestles himself loose. (Grinberg, Paramount, Pathe Newsreels/Getty Images)

Media: JW Player

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That summer, Houdini and his wife Bess arrived in San Francisco for the first time.

Over the years, the city would provide a testing ground for some of Houdini’s most successful acts. Within a few years, he'd become world-famous for his publicity stunts but, in 1899, Houdini was an unknown. And his first attempt at a grand San Francisco stunt was more than a little alarming for his unwitting assistants.

On July 16, Houdini walked to the new Receiving Hospital, near today’s Civic Center. Workers noticed him pacing outside, occasionally stopping to “scan the windows in an anxious manner.”

“He was finally seen to brace himself up as if for some supreme effort,” the San Francisco Call reported the next day, “and with rapid strides walk[ed] toward the entrance to the insane ward.”

“I am going to make a somewhat peculiar request,” Houdini told a hospital attendant. “But I want you to do me the favor I ask and I will explain my reasons later. I want to see the best straitjacket you have in the place.”

The attendant, who perhaps had nothing better to do, found a straitjacket and laced Houdini in. Houdini asked him to leave him in a room alone, which the attendant also did. Ten minutes later, the attendant heard knocking at the door. Houdini emerged, the jacket neatly folded over his arm. He’d just completed his first-ever public straitjacket escape, a trick that would soon become one of his most famous escape acts.

“It was a hard one, but I did it,” Houdini told the attendant. “I promise to explain why I put you to all this trouble. I want to thank you for your courtesy, and would like to know your name.”

He put out his hand:

“Mine’s Harry Houdini.”

Photo: Apic

Harry Houdini seen in a 1906 publicity photo.

Harry Houdini seen in a 1906 publicity photo.

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After Houdini finished his American Orpheum tour, Beck booked him for a 1900 run in Europe. By the end of the year, Houdini was famous the world-over. Perhaps his early success in San Francisco left him with a fondness for the city, because in the years to come, Houdini would continue to visit the Bay Area.

In 1907, he helped usher in a new era for the Orpheum Theatre, which had burned down in the 1906 earthquake. Exactly 110 years ago today, on August 25, 1907, its replacement on Ellis and Fillmore hosted Houdini to great fanfare.

“Now comes the marvelous Houdini who takes off handcuffs as though they were his best girl’s bracelets,” the Chronicle proclaimed. “…He makes the police departments of the world a joke.”

During his performance, Houdini asked if anyone in the Orpheum audience had a pair of handcuffs with which to shackle him. No fewer than seven men — only one a police officer — proffered cuffs.

It was “sufficient to warrant the assumption that a considerable portion of San Francisco's citizenry carries concealed manacles,” the Call cracked.

On that trip, Houdini also attempted an escape from the bay. After being shackled, he jumped off the pier into the water. His escape was a success — although the Call reported another man's was not. Later that day, a drug clerk named Frank Nelson was seen wandering around the Ferry Building shouting, “I’m Houdini the handcuff wizard!” at passers-by. In front of a group of terrified children, he leapt into the bay. Some good Samaritans had to swim in and drag him to safety.

In 1915, Houdini improved on the act for the Pan-Pacific Exposition. Before being lowered into the bay, he was locked inside a heavy wood box. It took him just 30 seconds to escape and swim to a waiting barge. He also visited San Quentin where he performed for an audience of 2,300 prisoners.

“The only result,” the Examiner wrote, “must have been to make some of the San Quentin spectators envious of his peculiar accomplishments.”

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Photo: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

Harry Houdini, the American magician, slipping out of a straitjacket while hanging upside down over Broadway and 46th street in New York City.

Harry Houdini, the American magician, slipping out of a...

Houdini’s most spectacular San Francisco performance came in March 1923: a straitjacket escape done while dangling from the seventh floor of the Hearst Building. Eager crowds began gathering on Market Street early on the morning of the 19th. Onlookers packed every window with a view of the Hearst Building. By the time Houdini took the stage at noon, there were 30,000 people at Third and Market.

San Francisco Police Captain William J. Quinn helped strap Houdini into a straitjacket. Quinn pulled so tightly on the laces that newspapers reported Houdini winced. He was fitted with anklets and then pulled by a rope, feet first, into the air.

“For a moment he was motionless,” the Examiner wrote. “Then a ripple seemed in play along his spine. A systematic rhythmic convulsion was going on inside that straitjacket. A mighty wrenching of his back, a contortion of his bound arms, and he had the sleeves loose, but still strapped to each other at the wrist, with his hands inside. Again and again he swung himself until that strap was firmly caught over his upturned feet. And like a snake shedding his skin in the springtime, Houdini worked that straitjacket over his head.”

It took Houdini a shade under three minutes to break free and drop the jacket into the cheering crowd. When Houdini was lowered down, he was "nearly suffocated" by eager San Franciscans trying to shake his hand.

"Well,” Police Captain Quinn said, turning to a reporter by his side. “I'll be damned.”

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On that trip to San Francisco, Houdini performed another one of his most famous escapes: the Chinese Water Torture Cell.

The concept was simple. Houdini's feet were shackled to the cell's lid and he was plunged head-first into a tank of water. A curtain was drawn across the tank, and the tension built in the audience as Houdini fought to free himself.

In his early escapes, Houdini would emerge as soon as he'd freed himself, worried he couldn't sustain the audience's suspense any longer. But, as he discovered, that wasn't the case. Ten minutes, 40 minutes, even an hour could pass and the audience's panic would only rise. The longer he waited, the more sure the crowd became that Houdini was floating, dead, in the tank.

According to Houdini mythology, he sometimes sprung himself free so quickly that he arranged for assistants to bring him newspapers to read while he waited. Perhaps that's just what he did that night at the Orpheum — sitting calmly with a Chronicle, while just outside the curtain, San Francisco begged him to emerge one more time.